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Saturday, March 19, 2011

Inspiration

I don't remember exactly how old I was when I first found a volume of Ray Bradbury's short stories. I do remember being absolutely stunned at the depth of work I found between the covers. (Admittedly, I was probably twelve or so at the time and easily stunned by literary prowess.)

That sense of wonder is something that never fails to return when I pick up one of Bradbury's books. Something Wicked This Way Comes remains at the top of my all time favorite books. Closely followed by From the Dust Returned, The Illustrated Man, and Dandelion Wine.

But I have a very special place in my soul for the novella Somewhere A Band is Playing.

A few years ago I had put Now and Forever on my wish list at Amazon.com. And one of my family members bought it for me for Christmas. I was excited (never having read it before) but busy and put it on the shelf. Last summer I pulled it down and read the first of the two novellas in the book (Somewhere a Band Is Playing). It starts off with a mystery, a quaint little town where everyone lives and is happy but no one ever seems to work.

I know how Bradbury loves the bizarre, the horrific, so I wonder: Is it a ghost town? No. It's something far stranger - a town full of writers. Oh, it makes me laugh. It's a beautiful, and funny, little story. It's a story every writer should read.

When I first read Bradbury I wanted to write like he did. I tried to write like he did. And failed, miserably, I might add.

Now, I think, I'm finally beginning to realize that it's not about writing like a master (even one like Bradbury or King or Williams or Peake). It's about writing until you are a master in your own right.

That only comes when we put in the effort to learn our craft by writing every day.

Of Shade and Soul

Delaney Green might be dead, but she don't mean to stay that way. As she searches for a way back to the realm of the living, and the man she lay down flesh and bone for, Percival Cox and his team investigate a series of deaths and stolen souls. But Percy is not the man he used to be. If Del can't find a way to stop him from waking his past, he could destroy everything, including himself.

Of Lips and Tongue

Delaney Green is one of them that don't burn. Possessed of the Touch, she's been twisting the future like a piece of string, but is it enough to save the man she loves?

For Kindle

The Weather's Always Fine in Paradise

Dust

Half-Fae cop, Jonas Flannery has lost enough partners in his years on the job - to drugs, to corruption, to the monsters that prowl the streets. When his current partner, Lola Rodriguez, is whammied by a dying pixie queen, he finds himself in a race against time to find the drug producing Dust farm, free the other Corlun, and save Lola before the magic breaks her mind.

Legacy

When a skin-changer looking for passage to Lake Ponchartrain collapses at her feet, Willa Arch finds herself drawn into a conflict between the iron-willed Queen Elsbett of Brittania and Queen of the Dead, Marie Laveau. But survival means coming face to face with Willa's own deadly legacy of fur and teeth.

In the Cool of the Day

Miriam's aunts are determined to get everything that's coming to them. With Gran on her deathbed and a storm on the horizon, they are all about to learn that true inheritance is more than things.

The Collections Agent

Milton Jones collects the things people can no longer afford to keep. Magic. Skills. Souls. And, sometimes, a heart.

About Me

A.G. Carpenter writes fiction of (and for) all sorts. Her work has appeared in Daily Science Fiction, Abyss & Apex, Stupefying Stories and "Beast Within 4: Gears & Growls". She prefers Die Hard to When Harry Met Sally and The Good, The Bad and The Ugly over Animal House. Her favorite color is black. Repped by Bob Mecoy.